The person Bono called “the first bluesman”
While certain genres of music can’t claim to have been around for a long time, it’s those that are rooted in cultural traditions such as blues and folk that have existed for the longest, and there’s no doubt that elements of them will continue to exist until we’re long gone.
Having been born out of songs passed down through generations of certain communities, there’s an argument to be made that the very nature of blues and folk has shifted in recent years, and that any song that is representative of a social group or community and their plight could realistically be seen as blues or folk music for modern times.
There’s a lot of cultural meaning attached to things like rap, hip-hop and all of their subgenres that make this one of the more likely mutations of where these genres have ended up in modern times, and despite the continued existence of folk and blues as we initially knew them, there’s a lot to be said about how this is now more representative of society in the modern age.
Before that, rock and roll was the zeitgeisty genre that many young people chose to tap into, and when that mutated into various different strands of rock music and became the most popular style, one could have made the argument that these were representative of societal issues and our culture. Not all rock music questions our place on this earth, of course, and it isn’t always going to be there to answer life’s greatest mysteries either, but for a time, it was certainly important to the growth and expansion of culture.
However, the themes of blues music have existed long before blues was first considered as a mere concept. As humans, we’ve always been existentialists, and we’ve always wondered exactly what our purpose is in life. While in a musical sense, there’s often been more lyrical exploration of this from the 20th century onwards, people have been asking these pertinent questions since the dawn of time.
U2 were certainly not the first band of their kind to exist, and they’ve got several decades worth of rock and blues music to look back on as their main inspiration. However, while frontman and songwriter Bono is certainly appreciative of the musical endeavours of the blues artists from the 1940s and ‘50s who revolutionised the idea of rock music as we know it, he looks back at a figure from long before this period as being the first person to take the approach of blues music and apply it to his musings.
As a deeply religious person, Bono regularly questions his reasons for his faith in his lyrics, and in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, he made comparisons between the classic blues musicians and a notable Biblical figure. “I read the Psalms of David all the time,” Bono postulated. “They are amazing. He is the first bluesman, shouting at God: ‘Why did this happen to me?’ But there’s honesty in that too.”
While David questioning God was never turned into a pain-stricken blues track, there’s plenty of reason to believe that his thoughts were similar to those of the blues musicians; constantly asking the reasons for his inner turmoil, and trying to seek answers to his plight. However, believing that he was the first blues musician, is, of course laughable, as is Bono’s insinuation that he bore some resemblance to the King of rock and roll himself.
“Of course, he looked like Elvis,” the singer added. “If you look at Michelangelo’s sculpture, don’t you think David looks like Elvis?” It has to be said, this is something of a stretch, even by Bono’s standards.
